In the past few days, I've been talking to a lot of people about Christmas music. There's a lot of it out there, but everyone has their favorites - something they saw on TV when they were a kid, something they sang in choir in school. I'm a sucker for traditional Christmas carols, but they're all so good, and there are so many of them, so I'm…

Funny thing. You may not know this about me, but I've never really been so into Christmas. I mean, we all know it's the height of commercialism and a bastardization of what may have once been a very graceful celebration of birth and winter and all that good stuff, but I've always been particularly turned off by it - the ubiquitous, meaningless…

As those of you who knew me when can attest, I used to be a big Pearl Jam fan. Ten was the first album I actually went out and bought, and to some extent it changed my life. It showed a kid raised on the Beatles and Steely Dan that raw emotion and power were just as important musically as beautiful melodies and tight-ass grooves. I'd sing…

Will people please stop telling me that Bush has won the election? Reports of the number of provisional ballots still to be counted from Ohio vary from 150,000 to 250,000. Bush's margin in Ohio is 136,000 votes or so. He hasn't won shit…

When I used to play the guitar (in my teenage years), I was intrigued by the psychological perception of pitch. If I play a C, and I tune the E string a little flat, it still sounds like a major third. But if I keep turning the peg, eventually it's no longer a flat E, it's a sharp E-flat, and it sounds like a minor third. So what happens…

So I've been talking about CSound a lot recently. A sound synthesis programming environment, allowing you to do basically anything from the ground up. From FM synthesis to sampling to filters, panning, effects, etc - all completely controllable in long lines of obfuscated code…

"If you have a New York State driver license, learner permit or non-driver ID card, or a registration for a vehicle, boat or snowmobile, you are required by law to notify DMV within 10 days of any permanent address change."…

About four days ago, I started learning Csound, basically a programming language for sound synthesis. Two days ago, I ordered Producing In The Home Studio with Pro Tools on half.com. Later in the day, I put in a call to a guitarist I found on Craigslist who was supposed to give me guitar lessons in exchange for piano. This morning, I picked up…

On Wednesday, I saw Fahrenheit 911. It served its purpose very well. But in every discussion I've had afterwards, I've had to take issue with it. Moore gives the impression that he is providing the facts behind the Bush adminstration's web of hearsay and conjecture. But, of course, his film is left-wing propaganda , just as much as Fox News…

If you've ever been to a Freestyle Love Supreme show, you've probably had occasion to compare me to Harpo Marx. (And if you haven't, get your ass out there - we've only got one left until we break for the summer...)…

OK, here's my problem with iTunes. It's great that you can assign album covers to your tracks. But what's the point? So you can stare at the cover while you're listening to the song? Seems kind of silly…